Everywhere on Goodreads, Twitter and Instagram I saw people saying: "O MY GOD I LOVEEE THIS SERIES" "IT WAS AWESOME" "GREAT SERIES"
So I thought: you know what? I'm gonna give it a shot, because yolo.
And now I regret that I haven't started it sooner, because the fourth book just came out and booktubers and bookbloggers are putting these video's and blogposts on the book on the Internet, while I'm sitting here like: WAIT. GUYS. HOLD UP. LET ME READ THE OTHER TWO FIRST. PLEASE. GUYS. WHY.
And I'm trying to resist the urge to look up the Throne of Glass hashtag on Instagram, because I get way. Too. Many. Spoilers. (Yes, I've tried once. #regrets)
I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm kind of, sort of, completely, totally falling for the series too.
Summary
After spending a year in Endovier for her crimes, Celaena Sardothien is requested by the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian is prepared to give her her freedom on one condition; she must participate as his champion in a competition to become the king's royal assassin.
When she arrives at Rifthold, the place where the competition is held, she meets her opponents. All not intimidating at all, but one of them manages to make her a bit unsure of her absolute victory - Cain.
After a while things start to get a bit more interesting for Celaena. The prince starts to have some interest in her, she finds that the gruff Captain genuinely understands her and she makes a new friend. But one day one of the contestants turns up dead and soon another follows.
Can Celaena find out who the killer is before she ends up dead? But her investigation leads to even greater things than she could've possibly imagined...
My opinion
Rate: 8.5/10
Like I said in the beginning - I'm falling for this series.
I really enjoyed reading the story from different perspectives. I felt like that it made the story more "round", by showing you nearly all the sides of the story and giving you different opinions on certain events in the story, making it more and more interesting to read. And there was this one perspective in particular that first kind of bothered me but later on in the story became fascinating to read, and that was Kaltain's perspective. I still feel like her perspective was kind of unnecessary, but I also feel like it definitely had some purpose other than the fact that it made you aware of future events. I feel like it also gave you an insight on Duke Perrington's personality and role in the story, perhaps giving us hints for the sequel. And normally I feel like being aware of future events in a story kind of sucks, but in this story it actually didn't bother me. Maas made sure that it weren't too big things so that was alright.
When it comes to the characters, I think they're vivid and cool.
Celaena is this typical, very intelligent, sarcastic and strong heroine, but gladly all these qualities aren't forced. Like her intelligence isn't shown in every single word she says or everything she does - she makes mistakes, she isn't invincible and she doesn't always know what to say. But her way of thinking, her personality proves her intelligence and other qualities, making her more real.
I think that's exactly the thing with these characters - they're real. They're complex and real.
Like Chaol, the Captain of the Guard, he's very loyal and obedient to the king and his rules. A solemn fellow, but when Celaena comes into his life his loyalty and his cold, hard side cringes a bit showing a soft side he normally hides, which is, again, very fascinating.
Love is one of the highlights in this book and in the beginning I felt like I shipped everybody with everybody. No, but for real, though - I had no idea who to ship with who, because I felt sad for the other one. The love-triangle between Celaena, Chaol and Dorian was sooooo heartbreaking! Poor Chaol, but yay Dorian and then poor Dorian.
I found it strange how the relationship (SPOILER) between Dorian and Celaena ended. It was abrupt and Celaena's reason came out of nowhere! Like I know freedom was her main goal, but using that as an excuse to break up with Dorian? GURL - NAH.
But the other thing was that she wanted to be with him for so long and she kept saying that and being happy about that and I just. I just... BOOM! Suddenly that's all gone - it felt a bit forced, actually.
It broke my heart. AND IT PISSED ME OFF SO MUCH.
(As you can see, I am falling hard for this story. Very hard. Wow.)
I also think Maas has worked out this story amazingly. Every tiny little detail fits the story perfectly. The way the characters speak, the way everything's described, they way the people live, the political games in the story - all woven in a beautiful web that lays over the story just perfectly.
The way Maas has used magic in the story appealed to me in some way. It was there, but not prominently, leaving me with questions of how this will affect the rest of the series. Although I think how magic is used in this story is a bit old school, I did feel that it fit the story and I hope the next books will make the magic a bit more prominent, because I feel like that would make things far more interesting.
But overall - I thought this story was amazing. I loved our protagonist, Celaena, and all the other characters and Maas has made me fall in love with her work. I'm looking forward to read the rest this series and I will definitely check out her other work!
Until the next blogpost, then! :)
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